Moving Strongly Forward

Chris Kresser on Poisonous Food

I wasn’t planning to link to many of Chris Kresser’s articles, but in the last two days I have come across five people who would benefit from this one: Don't Eat Toxins. It is a good supplement to the information in Dr. Eades’ blog and associated video, which I posted yesterday (see Worth Every Second of Your Time).

Chris’s article comes from his “Beyond Paleo” series, which I highly recommend requesting if you are trying to understand why you should do things differently than the overwhelming majority of sick Americans. You can request the series here: ChrisKresser.com.

 

Worth Every Second of Your Time

A physician friend, obviously a critical thinker, sent me the link to Dr. Michael Eades’ blog, clearly another critical thinker, discussing a TED talk given by physician who was going to die unless she did something different than the medical experts were recommending. Her solution? FOOD. Now, instead of dead, she is a very physical, talking, practicing physician, and she is breaking new research ground using food to treat disease.

Regardless of the state of your health, healthy or sick, you should watch this TED talk. If it doesn’t change your life, maybe you can send it on to someone else who needs it.

Here it is: Mitochondria rejuvenating diet the nutritional ‘experts’ bash.

If you are skeptical and wondering if this way of eating applies to you (your physician probably has never mentioned it to you) – only you can figure that out. If I was placing bets that it does, I would win an extraordinarily large number of times.

Keep in mind that you could always search for a doctor who REALLY knows how food affects health and get some guidance to be sure that eating this way is right for you. Given that these critical thinking docs are on the rare side, keep searching and persevering!

Arsenic in Rice

A friend asked me about the arsenic content of rice recently, but I hadn't had time to look into it. My friend Shannan came to the rescue and sent me these links today (sorry they are unformatted, but the computer from which I am writing is not well equipped). Because this computer is so dysfunctional, I am going to stop typing, other than to say that I am glad that my family is eating white rice from the Himalayas, and who would have thought that China has the best arsenic controls.

http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_intolerance/cow_milk_all_management/articles/rice_arsenic_1_03.10.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1892142/

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/arsenic-found-brown-rice-syrup-organic-foods-baby-185300194.html

Colson Baloney’s Wild PT Ride

Colson has been seeing the most amazing Feldenkrais physical therapist for about a year. It is a long story, and here is the short version. According to the orthopedic doc, his outer leg bones grew faster than his inner ones, causing his ankles and knees to point toward the floor. In my defense, I asked the pediatrician, on Grandma’s recommendation, about it every year and by year six the ped sent him to the orthopedic. So much for just growing out of it. The orthopedic said Colson had one more year to grow out of it and if he didn’t then he would need surgery to stop his outer leg bones from growing for awhile. This would let his inner bones catch up, and then more surgery to somehow turn the growth on for the outer bones. Well, I knew that Colson wasn’t growing out of it, and surgery was a money making absurdity.

Ryan got laid off, so we couldn’t afford to take action, but when he got a job again we were off to the chiropractor, who achieved amazing results. When Ryan got a better job, we went to the Feldenkrais PT as well. Their working together has resulted in straight legs for Colson (with some bulging at the insides of the knee and ankle because bone deposited there thanks to the gravity and their downward direction for over six years.

The PT has been unreal. She has solved things the chiropractor thought were unsolvable. And this leads us to Colson’s Wild Night last night. Colson had a growth spurt and when that occurs, the body wants to go back to its old behaviors. Colson’s legs were showing some regression. Our PT did this wild eye and leg movement thing to break his body out of its almost lifelong pattern immediately, resetting his horizon and reorganizing his neural connections, and Colson was fried. Walking was a trip, literally, and he was a bit goofy. He spent the rest of the day dealing with rolling waves of lethargy and headache, and today he is better.

It was crazy watching this session unfold and then watch what happened afterwards. Today we are back at it – Colson will soon be standing on a Styrofoam roller and bending and looking around and rolling it like a lumberjack. With this training he should win log rolling contests fairly young. It is pretty impressive.

MY UPDATE

I see the same PT and have organized a number of group classes to cut down on cost. I have had a few victories. I can play basketball with Colson and not have to worry about the repercussions of quick movements if you know what I mean (see Pelvic Floor – Do Those Exercises). My first successful basketball practice in this regard happened last week, after almost four months of doing these exercises daily. No geriatric diapers for me…I expect.

My posture is greatly improved. I am finding neutral easily, which is the goal according to our PT, and I am even better than when I wrote this post: My Posture is so AMAZINGLY Better!!

My TMJ is mildly less bothersome. I am going to keep doing those exercises.

Recently I went to the PT because I didn’t like how my feet were looking or feeling. My second toe was migrating under my big toe on the right foot. I have messed up feet to begin – see Going Barefoot. My PT told me that all I needed to do was stand with my feet under my hips and walk that way too. I have always been a wide stander and walker. Yesterday, one month later, she took a peek at them during Colson’s visit. She said they are definitely better and I likely don’t need any therapy – just stand and walk properly. I can tell that my second toe is not as far under my big toe. Yay! Because of this adjustment, the ache in my leg joints adjacent to the pelvis is greatly reduced and I suspect it will go away eventually.

Amazing how messed up modern life has made us and how much work it is to undo it! But, it can be done, thanks to a great PT. If you haven’t checked out Feldenkrais, it is worth a look. Very different from “normal.”

Guest Post - Treating the Triad: Asthma, Eczema and Peanut Allergies

I love this story – it was volunteered by a powerful mom who is leading her family on a wonderful journey. It is stories like this that give me a great big boost – thank you for that gift, Erin!

My daughter Mirren was exclusively breastfed from birth, loved her egg yolks and liver, joyfully took her fermented cod liver oil, drank fresh milk at one year, and always asked for seconds on sauerkraut and kim chi.  Of course our diet wasn't perfect, but it was really good and I had tried so hard for two years to provide our family with a Nourishing diet.  That's why I was shocked when Mirren accidentally ate a tiny bit of peanuts at 17 months of age and immediately began to react with her eyes swelling and sneezing.  No one else in our family is allergic to peanuts, but it was apparent that Mirren had a strong sensitivity.  On top of that, MIrren began having respiratory issues that even sent us to the emergency room one night around the time that she turned 18 months old.  She also had eczema around her mouth that I just couldn't get rid of, no matter what foods I eliminated from her diet.

Grrrrrrrrrr, Mirren was diagnosed by our family doctor as having the classic "triad" that is prevalent in so many children these days: asthma, eczema and a peanut allergy.  Our family doctor couldn't give me any explanation as to why so many children have these conditions these days, but she did prescribe Mirren with an Epi-Pen and Albuterol and gave me hope that "maybe someday she will outgrow the asthma and nut allergy."

After praying and dealing with my emotions, I began reading about how I could proactively work to heal Mirren's health conditions.  I was not about to wait around for Mirren to "outgrow" these conditions that could even be life threatening!  

Gleaning from my readings, I realized that at the time of Mirren's birth, my digestive system was likely not completely healed.  I had eaten the Standard American Diet for about 27 years and I had only had a short period eating Real Foods, so I likely passed on my not-so-great gut flora to Mirren at birth.  This contributed to the development of her autoimmune conditions.  Additionally, we were living in an old apartment with a mold problem and laminate flooring.  This environment was surely a huge factor in Mirren's health.

These are the steps we took to treat Mirren's autoimmune issues:

1. Trust God more.  I had to face the reality that no one can have perfect health on this earth.  Sometimes we all get sick.  I had read so many Dr. Mercola and wellness blog articles that I was starting to think if I just did all the right things and gave my family the right foods, they would be perfectly healthy.  Don't get me wrong, I think a ton of things can and should be done to improve a person's health, but still we all get sick sometimes and we will all eventually die!  I am learning to do my best in providing good nutrition for my family and trust God with the rest.
2. Move out of our apartment.  We moved in with my in-laws in order to get out of that yucky mold environment.  (Wow, I feel for those with health conditions who don't have any option of going to another living environment.  We are so blessed that we could move out).
3. Implement a healing diet.  I took Mirren to Oriental Health Solutions in Durham, NC where she was treated by Fang Cai.  Fang recommended we start on the GAPS diet right away.  Since I had previously read on Laura Combs' blog about the Whole 30 diet, which Laura seemed to think was more healing than the full GAPS diet, I decided to do a combination of the two diets.  Like Laura, I felt the GAPS diet has a powerful kick-off with the introduction diet, especially with the bone broths, but then I felt GAPS introduces cultured dairy, honey, and a couple legumes too soon before healing can take place. So we went from the GAPS intro diet and then transitioned onto the Whole 30. In short, we ate only the foods allowed on both diets with an emphasis on the healing foods recommended in the GAPS diet.
4. Take supplements.  We gave Mirren a strong probiotic as recommended in GAPS.  We also gave her cod liver oil, butter oil, and a couple supplements recommended by Fang (including glutathione, a vitamin D complex, omega 3s and DHA.)  Fang also was able to recommend an herbal tincture made by Kan Herbs for treating childhood asthma.
5. Playing out in the sunshine.  We try to spend at least an hour outside each day playing enjoying picnics and trips to the park even now in the mild North Carolina winter.

The Results

Eczema GONE!  It's been three months since we started Mirren on the healing diet.  Her eczema went away after one month of starting the diet and she has had no flare ups at all, not even from acidic foods.  

No daily asthma medicine needed!  Mirren just made it through a cold without needing any steroid treatment!  She did have to take albuterol three times during the course of that cold, but the herbal tincture and other supplements (not to mention prayer) got her through the bug.  I am so thankful for Fang and Oriental Health Solutions.  Fang has been there to support us through each step of the way.  We also started with a new pediatrician who took Mirren off of the daily asthma medicine her previous family doctor had just started her on.  I'm very hopeful that within the next year Mirren will not need the albuterol at all.

As far as the peanut allergy, sometime next year I'd like to try giving her a little bit of peanuts again and see if her body is healed of that sensitivity.  I don't ever plan for us to eat peanuts on a regular basis, but I'd like to know if Mirren can tolerate them if she accidentally comes in contact with them again.

We are continuing with a cross between a primal diet and the GAPS diet.  We all feel good on this diet and my husband and I have seen good results in our own health as well.  We are still living with my in-laws.  Last I heard my mother-in-law lost 20 pounds since we moved in, just roughly following our diet and my father-in-law had lost 10 pounds, reluctantly following our diet (he still snacks on whatever he likes in between the meals I prepare for us all).

Thank you Laura for all the great health information you've given us through your blog and emails. You've been such a blessing in our lives.

And here is the beautiful Mirren herself. Love, love, love those babies!

Honey Revisited

While avoiding the use of sweeteners, occasionally I decide to use them. Raw honey has been my family’s go to sweetener for years, but as I learned more we moved away from it too. See Realizations About “Healthy” Sweeteners and Flours. While we continue to avoid sweeteners (see what they, combined with some chocolate, do to me here: Update on Cake Sabotage), my comfort with honey has grown again, thanks to an article by Mark Sisson: Is Honey a Safe(r) Sweetener?

 

Update on Cake Sabotage

After two refreshing nights of sleep, I am off the dumb-ass kick (see Dumb-Ass of the Week Award). Ran into my Oriental med. doc at the farmers market yesterday and told him I recovered my sleep rhythm the night after the cake overdose, and he said that such a fast sleep return is a great sign in my adrenal recovery. I love sleep!

I see my doc as a patient in about four more weeks and I look forward to what he finds. See $#^% and Great Oriental Doc Visit to learn how all of this started. 

 

More Ways to Look at GAPS

Robb Wolf did a great interview with Chris Kresser last week. The entire interview is worth the time, but the discussion about GAPS in relation to Kathy’s and Monika’s questions in the second half really caught my interest.

Awhile back I had a chance to share with my Oriental medicine doc that while GAPS is an amazing healing diet, I didn’t think it was the ultimate solution in a lot of cases. My doc agreed and said that he uses different protocols with different people because while GAPS is brilliant and highly effective, it doesn’t bring ultimate healing for some patients. Chris Kresser is of the same thinking and talks about it in a bit more detail in the Robb Wolf podcast.

Without a doubt GAPS turned my entire family’s health around in a serious way, but it didn’t take us to our highest potential the way it does for some people. We were full on GAPS converts for a couple of years, thinking it would cure everyone. But I began to hear stories, some of them firsthand, of people who sometimes struggled on the diet and didn’t excel. In the podcast, Chris Kresser provides examples of patients who both excel and those who don’t and the need to tailor the diet.

I am glad that my family excelled on GAPS and that we have gone further down the healing path, but I wish I would have had the knowledge to share about flexibility and experimentation with those I know who didn’t have the same outcomes.

Dumb-Ass of the Week Award

That would be me. Dumb-ass and runner up. Not much room in my life for competition in this category.

Here is how it started:

Birthday party season is gearing up and Colson, who is almost nine, has some trepidation around it because he can’t eat wheat and birthday cake (see Wheat/Gluten, Autoimmune, the Brain and Cancer). This year was going to be tough for him – usually I can just gloss over the cake issue and give him an organic, dark chocolate bar, but not this year. (Side note: funny thing, humans…birth rates are higher in the first half of the year versus the second half (lots of interesting studies posted on the net about this)). So what was I to do with the birthday season here? Find an alternative cake that wasn’t coconut flour, as Colson doesn’t like coconut flour cakes, or any nut flour baked good for that matter.   

My friend Shannan sent me a recipe for a navy bean chocolate cake and she raved about it. Navy beans are on the GAPS diet because they have relatively low starch, so I thought I would give it a try. I dutifully soaked my beans and cooked them. Then I made the cake and it was excellent (see Healthy Chocolate Cake With a Secret). My guys loved it. The neighbors pounded it (they need to get off of wheat so I bring them alternatives – needless to say it vanished quickly).

Here is dumb-ass point one: Chocolate prevents me from sleeping and I had a healthy slice of chocolate cake (see Chocolate and Sleep (or Lack of)).

Dumb-ass point two: I have been having a hard time sleeping (see $#^% and Great Oriental Doc Visit), and I just got it under control and was rebounding strongly. I can complete seven chin-ups anticipating ten soon. Now I am temporarily derailed again. Dang!

Dumb-ass point three: I quickly fell asleep last night at 10 and woke up at 12:30 a.m., never to fall back asleep. I felt like total crap today. I KNOW BETTER THAN TO EAT THIS STUFF! Seriously, WTF? I am an overeducated dumbass – at least this week (ok, other weeks too). I look back at my blog and see that I post the same things over and over and do the same stupid stuff periodically. The way I felt today was not worth a really delicious chocolate navy bean cake with, loud gasp, butter cream frosting.

Oh no, not sugar! I used ½ cup of maple syrup in the cake and then I moved on to the frosting. That is dumb-ass point four – knowingly mutating my DNA temporarily and crashing my immune system while I am depleted (or any other time for that matter). I explained to my neighbors that I was doing the same to them when I gave them the cake and they (and I) still ate it joyfully.

So, how is this dumb-ass drama going to turn out? I am sure I am going to do more dumb-ass things. As a matter of fact, I just yelled across the house just now, asking how “dumb-a” is punctuated. Ryan said, “What’s dumb a?” and Colson said, “You know, dumb-ass.” DAMN! 

What I Believe

My little family of three has been talking about what we believe, spurred on by this TED talk, which was brought to my attention by a homeschool teen that I am mentoring in relation to environmental protection (thanks Gabby!): Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. My almost nine-year-old son, Colson, distilled his beliefs down to a pretty simple idea: “Kids should do what they love.”

Well, heck, if kids should do what they love, shouldn’t grown-ups? And how can we prevent kids from drifting away from doing what they love and to what they are supposed to as defined by our wacky, overstressed, overstimulated society?

With that in mind, I believe we should: 

1. encourage our kids to do what they love, regardless of how well they are compensated.
2. encourage our kids to be innovative and take risks.
3. encourage and allow our kids to enjoy the present and relish in it. The present is where life happens, not the past or future.
4. remind our kids, if they forget, that there are do-overs if they don’t succeed or if they develop new interests.
5. remind our kids, if they forget, that life is cyclical and there are high and low points along with steady times.
6. remind our kids to be flexible, grab onto opportunities and move around obstacles without sweating it.
7. remind our kids that resting is ok. There doesn’t seem to be much resting these days.
8. teach our kids that life isn’t about the stuff, it is about the experience and relationships.

I believe that kids know how to live better than almost any adult. There doesn’t seem to be much need for adults to teach about happy living because kids know what to do. We just need encourage and remind when our crazed society pushes them off course. 

The title of my blog and the synopsis of my beliefs is Moving Strongly Forward. While I believe that moving strongly forward is valid, my understanding of it has grown thanks to my son and the teens that I mentor.

Finally, it occurs to me that my beliefs are largely out of touch when considering families whose basic needs are not met, and I believe we should all do something to help them out.

P.S. I believe a lot more, but this is where my focus is today.

Chicken About Chicken Update

A couple of weeks ago I began posting about the problems with Whole Foods chicken and happy farm chicken in general. See Chicken about Chicken, where I make a reference to arsenic in chicken. The focus of this update is the arsenic in chicken, and hopefully it alleviates some concerns.

During the discussion of a couple of weeks ago, my friend Niti stated that arsenic is used in feed (it promotes growth) and for pest control. In the case of pest control, rodents eat the arsenic, die and chickens eat the rodents. Such is the circle of life for unhappy, never go outside chickens. The chatter among my Holistic Moms Network friends amped up with concern about the occasional rotisserie chicken or boneless, skinless pieces many of us were buying from Whole Foods. My friend Claire took the chicken by the tail feathers and asked Whole Foods about arsenic exposure and the chickens they sell. Here is what she learned:

This information comes from leaders at Coleman Natural, the supplier of our BC Natural chicken brand.

BC Natural Chicken does not allow the use of arsenic in feeds or pest control applications.  Each grower receives instruction on growing processes.  These processes include pest control.  We follow GAP (Global Animal Partnership) standards and we are audited on these standards by GAP certified auditors.  The GAP standards state that exclusion is the most desirable practice.  We believe that too.  Farm cleanliness must meet our requirements and be performed at a level as to deter pests from entering.  Our grower manuals state that arsenic is restricted from use in any pest control applications if applications are needed.  Farms are monitored by company management personnel to ensure compliance to our standards and to the standards of organic production, antibiotic production, animal welfare standards, and GAP standards.  Third parties (outside auditors) often audit our farms to ensure we are following proper practices.

Additionally, you may read that some chickens are given medication with trace amounts of arsenic. Here is a comment from the same group regarding that possibility:

Our team advised that the only arsenic which could get into chicken would be from a medication used in Feed – Roxarsone is the name of it. We do not use any medication in our program so there would be no Arsenic in our birds.

I hope you find this information thorough and helpful. We appreciate your interest in our products and look forward to your continued patronage.

Then Claire writes: “I asked WF if the info they gave me applies to all, or just some, of their chickens. This is the reply I got:” 

This information applies to all of our chicken. The Rocky Junior rotisserie chickens are one of Coleman’s brands. Check out this link (http://www.colemannatural.com/brands).

As far as arsenic goes, hopefully that alleviates some of the concerns around purchasing Whole Foods Chicken.

I still stick to the “crunchy hippy Chapel Hill organic farm lovingly raised but grain fed” chicken with the omega 6:3 ratio imbalance problem, but when I do “need” the occasional boneless skinless from Whole Foods, at least there is one less problem with it.

 

Guest Post - My Journey to Healthier Living (Kidneys, Feet and Diet)

This guest post is from Jerry, the husband of a former co-worker of Ryan’s. I like his story because western medicine had taken him as far as it could, and then he took the blind leap of faith and went with Oriental medicine. Jerry dove in, did what he was told, including giving up processed food and embracing real food full throttle, and he is excelling. I see him farmers market, and he is full of smiles and excitement every time.

Here is Jerry's story:

My issues first began back in August 2010 when I was walking in the mall to help my wife rebuild her strength and stamina when all of a sudden I got a shooting pain in the ball of my right foot.  Not knowing what happened, I rested for a week and began to feel better so I started exercising, then all of a sudden the pain returned again.  This time rest and icing did not relieve the pain so I went to see my primary care physician, who ordered x-rays, and these showed no fractures or breaks.  By now (3 months in) I was having increasing pain and could not walk for any length of time, it even hurt to press the gas pedal on the car!

To make a long story short, the next 8-10 months I went to 3 different foot doctors, 2 cortisone shots, 1 MRI and 3 different orthotics to help with walking; still little or no relief.  Now I could not even walk through the house without severe pain and ended up getting a knee walker to just get from one room to another.  My 4^th foot doctor finally gave me an accurate diagnosis and some form of relief but I was now more than 12 months past my initial injury and I did not seem to be making any progress, a very low point for me!  This is when my wife urged me based on a recommendation from Ryan to visit his acupuncturist - Ken.   I was at the end of my rope and had nothing to lose so I made an appointment.

WOW – Wish I had known about Ken 12 months ago!!  My first appointment was a major eye opener; we discussed my health, diet and history.  My first order was to totally eliminate soy (I was having smoothies with soy milk on a daily basis!), second was to fundamentally change my diet by eliminating processed food and eating more like my grandmother did (real food!).  We also talked about my kidney stone history (I have had and passed 10+ kidney stones mostly small but painful ones, still have 1 in my right kidney which Ken did not know about) at which Ken indicated that the pain in right foot was from issues with my right kidney. 

As we talked more and Ken learned of my kidney stone in my right kidney he said that the stone was a “foreign” object and my kidney was radiating pain to the ball of my foot and causing inflammation.  I explained that my urologist did not recommend removing the stone because it was located in a very difficult location; he prescribed medication to keep it from growing.  With this information Ken made the statement “We will dissolve the kidney stone and then your foot will feel better”, I was floored – you can dissolve it?! – Ken replied “I have had success in the past so hopefully you will respond well also”.  The other issue that my kidney problems were causing was it is limiting blood flow to my feet which meant that I am not getting good nutrition to help heal my foot.

After the discussion, I received my 1^st acupuncture and I saw an immediate improvement in the level of pain, not gone but at least bearable.  I have started on dissolving my kidney stone, it may take up to a year to complete but it beats either passing (OUCH!) or surgical removal.  After 5 visits, 4 months of treatment, changing my diet and taking Chinese supplements I can begin to get around and have hope for a full recovery. For the first time in over 1.5 years I am able to pedal 20 minutes on a stationary bike and can begin my recovery! I still have pain but it has dramatically decreased which I believe is related to the acupuncture freeing up my blood flow, the dissolving of my kidney stone and the major change in nutrition (bone broth, real food, coconut oil, no sugar etc.).  Many, many THANKS to Ryan, Laura and most of all Ken.  I am excited about my new journey to rebuild my health and hopefully without any more foot pain!

Jerry